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1. Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome
2. Persistent hiccups
3. Inability to open eyes
4. Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome
5. Resistance to cold
6. Cold urticaria
7. Long-term insomnia
8. Inability to forget
9. Seizure-induced memory loss
10. Foreign Accent Syndrome
11. Music-induced seizures
12. Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy

There are common illnesses that people encounter in their daily lives like the flu, and in the everyday world, other medical conditions like cancer and heart disease find their way into people’s lives. The medical profession always has its hands full with diagnoses and treatments and cures. While many diseases are still being researched for clues as to their development and treatment, there are some that are so odd and out of the ordinary that they leave the medical community somewhat baffled.

The medical unit at ABC News, specifically reporters Radha Chitale and Dan Childs, took the time to compile twelve of the rarest and most perplexing medical conditions to be seen in recent years. There are no known cures or treatments because the conditions are so extraordinary, though doctors are on the cases to find the reasons behind these odd symptoms and conditions.

Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome is one that has found itself a name from medical professionals who have found more than one case of the condition. Carla Sosenko, however, has been the most public about her syndrome that is the result of a rare congenital disorder that produces deformities from excessive bone growth and fat deposits in different parts of the body. But the real danger comes in the pain and threats of blood clots, seizures, and blindness.

Another is Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome, which finds its victims constantly on the brink of orgasm by no wish of their own. Foreign Accent Syndrome plagues people like Rosemarie Dore, who spoke with a different accent than her own after a stroke. And Hereditary Sensory Autonomic Neuropathy is a condition that causes people, mostly children, to feel no pain, which is especially dangerous when the body allows anything to happen to it - sometimes self-induced injuries - without indicating that there is pain because of it. Gabby Gingras, an 8-year old, is one of the children afflicted with the condition, and she now wears protective gear after having lost all of her teeth and an eye because of her own inability to differentiate between proper body care and injury.

Other conditions have no name because there are so few cases that doctors have not yet been able to identify the problem in order to identify symptoms and causes. Christopher Sands is a 25-year old who started hiccupping in February of 2007 and has never fully stopped, as any lull in the action will ultimately find it coming back. Natalie Adler of Australia has a condition that causes her eyes to shut and not open under any circumstances for up to three days at a time. And Stacey Gayle has epileptic seizures that are prompted by songs, and though part of her brain was removed to try to alleviate the condition, in a world filled with music the young woman has yet to be cured of her tendencies.

Some people have been found to have odd reactions to cold weather. Wim Hof of the Netherlands has a resistance to cold that he has come to exploit in attempts to gain popularity and accomplish tasks, such as climbing Mount Everest in shorts. On the other side of that coin are patients that suffer from cold urticaria, an allergic reaction to cold temperatures that cause skin conditions and sufferers run the risk of seizures and shock reactions.

The other conditions pointed out by ABC News included a 4-year old boy named Rhett Lamb who cannot sleep, though surgery has been performed on his brain in an attempt to correct the defect. Brad Williams is a 52-year old who cannot forget a single moment of life experiences, while there are people on the opposite end of the spectrum whose entire memory disappears in an instant as a result of a grand mal seizure.

Cases like the ones described are rare but can be severe enough to cripple the victims and severely inhibit the quality of their lives. Worse, most in the medical profession are baffled and often dedicate years of research to discovering why a particular condition occurs.

The next time you burn yourself while cooking, catch that paper cut, or stub your toe, go ahead and let loose a few “colorful metaphors,” or utter your favorite expletive. Not only can it make you feel better but it may also help to alleviate your pain.

Researchers at Britain’s Keele University conducted a groundbreaking new study that suggests the use of profanity may act as a pain reliever. The analysis, performed on a small group of college students, found that swearing actually increased pain tolerance. The results of the study can be found in the journal NeuroReport.

According to Richard Stephens of Keele University in Staffordshire, U.K., swearing was also shown to increase the heart rate and decrease perceived pain that may help lessen actual pain. He said, “If people experience the emotion of fear to a significant degree, their pain tolerance increases.” He then explained, “There seems to be something similar here. Swearing is emotional language. If it’s not fear, it might be aggression.” As to how swearing differs from common language, Stephens said, “It taps into emotional brain centers and appears to arise in the right brain, whereas most language production occurs in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain.”

The idea for the analysis presented itself to Stephens when he experienced the miracle of childbirth with his wife, who unleashed a bit of unpleasant language during labor. This prompted Stephens to employ the help of his school of psychology colleagues, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, to set out to test whether or not swearing can actually diminish pain.

A total of 67 undergraduate students, consisting of 38 males and 29 females, participated in the experiment. During the study, each participant immersed a hand in cold water at a temperature of about 5º Celsius for as long as they could endure it. During performance of the frosty task, they repeated either a swear word of their choice or a neutral word. The students who were swearing during the exercise reported less pain and withstood the cold water for about 40 seconds longer, on average.

Among the popular choices for a swear word were the s-word, the f-word, two b-words and a c-word. Interestingly, although swearing had the positive effects of endurance and pain reduction for both sexes, women reported a greater decrease in perceived pain.

Although the issue of swearing remains one of heated public debate, scientists have now begun to question the idea that it is bad. Stephens explained, “Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it.” He then added, “I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear.”

Stephens pointed out that further studies of different types of pain and various measures of effects are needed for researchers to fully understand the impact of swear words on pain. In addition, Stephens cautioned that the more we swear, the less emotionally potent the words become. And without emotion, the swear word would become ineffective for pain relief.